Marauder
by EmotionallyCompromised
Summary: James, Sirius, Remus and Peter; Hogwarts celebrities with a terrifying secret. What happens when their secret life starts to wear them down?


Marauder

The sound of raucous laughter echoed down the Hogwarts corridor long before the four boys responsible for it came into sight. It was the kind of noise that screamed confidence; declared the arrival of the infamous marauders. Or so they called themselves.

The four walked in step, starkly different in appearance, yet somehow all sharing an arrogant spring I every movement that set them apart from the other students. There seemed to be an invisible line drawn around the four; something almost sacred keeping all others out of and away from the notorious clique.

James and Sirius walked in the middle, half a pace ahead of the other two, boisterously cracking jokes. Together they pulled each and every eye towards them. Peter had a slight scurrying gait and appeared to scramble after the other three, laughing nervously at a joke he hadn't understood, whilst Remus walked on the right of Sirius, almost in his shadow. If James and Sirius were the ones you saw when you walked into a room, Remus was the one you remembered long after they had left. Though his demeanour was quiet and timid, he managed to give off a silently frightening aura that only James and Sirius remained unaffected by and an eerily serious expression was a constant feature of his face.

Lily Evans rolled her bright green eyes and turned away in disapproval as the boys rounded the corner.

"Evans!" A cocky smirk spread slowly over James' face at the sight of the seventeen year old girl. "Potter." She replied, allowing only the slightest hint of distaste to slip into her polite greeting. His grin widened. "Don't be like that!" She turned and started to stride away from him, but almost bouncing, James spun on his heel and kept pace with her, drawing away from his friends in doing so. Their mocking calls of protest faded as Lily and James rounded another corner of the seemingly endless Hogwarts corridors.

"What do you want Potter?" she said impatiently, not slowing her pace. His face fell just fractionally and she sighed, suddenly stopping. "You can't keep doing this." His eyebrows knotted together, eyes widening innocently. Combining this with a slight pout to his lip, he flashed her a devastating kicked-puppy look that half the girls at Hogwarts would have killed to have been on the receiving end of. Probably more than half, Lily pondered casually.

"Doing what?" he said, edging the slightest hint of a whine into his voice. Lily tried in vain to prevent the corners of her mouth turning up a little, and sighed to hide it. "Doing that… Thing…" she could feel her face going warm and glared at him. "Cut the look Potter. You know what I mean." If possible, his eyes widened further and he drew his eyebrows up. "No I don't." He moaned petulantly. The red-haired girl glowered fiercely at him, genuine dislike in her expression. "You know I can't do this. The way you treat Sev… It's bullying James. Cut him a break."

James Potter's expression sobered into one of utmost contempt. "Why do you still care about that pathetic Slytherin?" He said 'Slytherin' the way most people would have said 'murderer', and spat his next phrase like it was bitter in his mouth. "It was cute four years ago. But now? It's boring Lil." Lily narrowed her eyes at the patronising tone, and wordlessly turned on her heel, stalking off across the square. James Potter was gorgeous, but damn it he could be a jerk sometimes.

Sighing, James Potter watched her go. He liked Lily, he really did, but her obsession with stupid, scrawny, snivelling Severus Snape was infuriating to the point of being intolerable. He huffed out a sigh and headed back down the corridor to the Gryffindor common room. Maybe Sirius had gone back there.

As he meandered down the hallway, he glanced out the window to the darkening sky and sighed heavily. A slither of the moon glowed brightly; ominously in the unclouded sky. They didn't have much longer. Running a hand through his hair, he continued walking, an increasingly ever-present frown fixed on his face. Two nights? He made a mental note to ask Sirius.

Dismissing the gloomy idea of returning to the common room, he lingered on a moving staircase. Loitered, as professor McGonagall was all too fond of reminding him. Although the gang had been sneaking Remus about the castle for years now, it had never seemed to get any easier. Tiredly he rubbed a hand over his face and glanced out the window. Rain dripped depressingly down the pane, giving the foreboding impression that the stained glass figurine portrayed there was shedding real tears.

Suddenly, footsteps rung on the stairs above him, snapping him out of his reverie. Spinning around and pasting his signature smirk back across his face, he headed wearily back up the stairs. Time was running out, and he needed to talk to Sirius.


End file.
